Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

16 reviews

qstew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Murder, Violence, War, Alcohol, Child death, Racial slurs, Child abuse, and Genocide

Moderate: Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Ableism

salmonite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Excrement, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Racism, Confinement, Hate crime, Violence, Cursing, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Death, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, War, Grief, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Bullying, Gore, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Alcohol, and Torture

princemyshkin's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Like nothing else, the pages and prose flow like spilled blood. Ultra violent, decedent. Pulling punches only to save the viewer from the worst abuses.
Initially feeling stilted, once you accept the patter, it rushes over you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Hate crime, Rape, Sexism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Murder, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and War

redmarten83's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Racial slurs, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Kidnapping, Bullying, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Rape

fatherofmysteries's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There is no review I could write that could begin to sum up the journey that this book took me on

He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Vomit, Genocide, Murder, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Confinement, War, Violence, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Alcohol, Death, Child death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Gore, Stalking, Torture, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Medical content, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Incest, Addiction, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Grief

nyxlexica's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

3.0

Difficult to read. Very slow, very distant, no character to get behind. An intense depiction of a period in history I knew nothing about, though, with an incredible villain. Happy I've read it but can't say I enjoyed the process, exactly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Ableism, Mental illness, Torture, Child death, Racism, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, War, Gun violence, Hate crime, Animal death, Colonisation, Genocide, and Racial slurs

ddavare's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Excrement, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

This is a purely violent book. I did not enjoy this at all. It's supposedly considered a great American novel?? I understand what the author was trying to convey (fate vs. free will, humanity's taste for violence, hipocrisy of Christianity), but this could have been done with at least 70% less violence. Whatever happened to the power of suggestion? JEEZ!!! - I mean the author suggests what happens to the protagonist (I use the word "protagonist" very lightly) at the end and leaves it up to the audience to imagine it. I would not recommend this book (as a person who is not white or a man) as it's triggering in every regard. Unless you are a lit major, writer, or enjoy reading literary challenges (the writing is interesting and challenging), I don't recommend. I think the average reader would not draw out the author's point, and would not be able to see through all this violence. This has not added any value to my knowledge and just created unnecessary stress and disappointment in Western culture (and I'm already disappointed with our political climate). This is a rant. I was set up to read this as part of a group read, and I am not happy about it and am using Storygraph as a way to vent.

billyjepma's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

A towering, alienating, raging tapestry of the violent, bloodthirsty heart of the American condition. It’s a nightmarish read, one that forces you to wrestle with its foggy, murky plotting and aimless pacing—there’s a reason it took me months to finish. But that’s part of the nightmare McCarthy is cataloging for us, and his disdain is palpable even (especially?) as he coldly pontificates on the situation of the men his story follows.  

“In the days to come the frail black rebuses of blood in those sands would crack and break and drift away so that in the circuit of few suns all trace of the destruction of these people would be erased. The desert wind would salt their ruins and there would be nothing, nor ghost nor scribe, to tell to any pilgrim in his passing how it was that people had lived in this place and in this place died.”

There are a lot of quotes that speak to the intent of this book—a book I might someday understand better—but that one might be the one I latch into. McCarthy understood violence and its roots in the masculine soul better than almost any other American writer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Murder, Rape, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gore, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: War, Alcoholism, Torture, Excrement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, and Cannibalism

bheller77's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Rape, Xenophobia, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, War, Excrement, Suicide, Torture, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racism, and Stalking

Very dark. Violent. Gory.

ronophica's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Murder, Ableism, Animal death, Hate crime, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Gore, Body horror, Gun violence, War, Rape, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Excrement, Cursing, Violence, and Sexual harassment